


(false) gods

by an_interesting_idea



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Ancient Egypt, F/F, Gen, Gods, Immortality, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 07:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18311432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_interesting_idea/pseuds/an_interesting_idea
Summary: It starts like this: there is a girl named Monifa, and she is immortal.**With footnotes. … about the historical accuracy of a story with magic.





	(false) gods

It starts with a birth: in the year 2546 BC[1], shortly after the construction of the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx, in the city of Zau[2], a girl named Monifa is born. 

It starts with a discovery: when Monifa is thirteen years old she’s bitten by a cobra; Monifa isn’t stupid—she knows that the bite should leave her sick for days if she’s lucky and kill her if she’s not. It doesn’t. It doesn’t do _anything_ but make her feel dizzy for a second—there's not even a bite mark. When Monifa is seventeen years old she’s mauled by the lion she and her father have been hunting. It is a devastating wound. It is a wound that means certain death. It is a wound that has closed completely, as if it never existed, less than five minutes after she receives it.

It starts with a romance: when Monifa is eighteen years old she falls in love. (It’s not a romance so much as it’s unrequited love.) It is not a happy and romantic love. It is an ugly, jealous thing. Monifa is in love with her best friend, Sofh[3], and Sofh is in love with someone else. The thing is, when Monifa is denied something she works toward earning that thing. It’s a positive trait most of the time, but when the something Monifa can’t have is her friend’s love and—in Monifa’s mind—the only reason for that is the existence of a boy it's … unlikely to end well.

It starts with a murder: when Monifa is nineteen years old she kills the boy Sofh loves. It is a murder born of jealousy, of hate, and of the fact that Monifa had never had to suffer from the consequences of her actions before. But Sofh sees her kill him and she informs the police and Monifa is arrested and tried and found guilty.

It starts with an execution: it is declared that for her crime Monifa will burn, her life for his, and so she is tied to the ground and stakes are driven through her hands to hold her in place. And Monifa burns (and screams and begs and pleads because she feels pain as much as anyone else). She burns until the rope imprisoning her is gone, until the stakes holding her are gone, until the fire burning her is gone. Then she steps out of the fire, her skin unblemished, her hands unscarred, completely unharmed.

It starts with a lie: when Monifa is nineteen years old she steps forth from the ashes of her should-be-grave. From this point forth her age is no longer measured in years for what she says here marks the end of her mortal life. Here Monifa says that she is no mortal (and that is true), nay, she claims she is a goddess. Thus ends Monifa’s mortal life, and she now casts off the name ‘Monifa’ and takes the name Henutsekhemu, Mistress of Powers.[4]

It goes like this: she feels like a fraud at first, but she has always been quick to adapt and she soon embraces her new life. Over centuries she learns much about science, art, the gods, and—most importantly—magic. She learns of blessings and curses, of glamors and illusions, and of pre-and-post-cognition. She becomes a powerful magician—strong enough that, while she is no god, she is quite sure her magics are great enough to challenge most of the gods. (But that’s a less impressive claim then it seems: most of the gods are rather weak[5] and she could never hope to challenge the stronger ones.)

It goes like this: in the fourteenth century BC, the pharaoh Akhenaten declares that the Aten is the one true god. It is a shocking statement, and it would be laughable—the workings of the gods are evident in all things—save for the fact that all the gods save for the Aten have disappeared. (They are not dead; Henutsekhemu is certain of this, but they are locked away and Aten has found a way to steal their power.) Henutsekhemu is quite sure Akhenaten will soon be aware that she, not being a true god, has escaped the trap that has imprisoned the gods. So she runs because she may be immortal, but she still remembers the pain she felt on the day of her rebirth. (And the Aten is a _god_ ; sure, she’s fairly confident that that doesn’t actually matter—that her immortality trumps its power—but she’s not willing to bet her life on that.)

(It takes fifty years for Akhenaten to die[6], and when he does the Aten’s link to the mortal world is sundered, and the gods are freed.)

It ends like this: by the time Aten falls Henutsekhemu has left Egypt (and while she could go back she’s spent over a thousand years there; she figures she may as well explore the world) and gone to Europe. Europe is interesting; the magic there is different than the magic of Egypt. The distinctions are myriad: there is alchemy, dragons, and innumerable other magics not present in Henutsekhemu’s homeland. It is in Europe that Henutsekhemu, who was once Monifa, takes for herself a new name, Asja, meaning rebirth[7], and starts her third life.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] Shortly after the beginning of the [ Old Kingdom ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom_of_Egypt)  
> [2] Now named [ Sais ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sais,_Egypt)  
> [3] How homosexuality was treated in ancient egypt is unknown, but it’s at least plausible that it was accepted. See [ this ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Egypt) wikipedia article for some information.  
> [4] According to [ this ](https://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/gender/feminine/usage/ancient-egyptian) website. Note that the website states “names are contributed by users of this website … accuracy … cannot be guaranteed.”  
> [5] Ancient egyptian mythology had thousands of deities, but most were rather minor. See [ this ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_deities) wikipedia article on egyptian gods and [ this ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_deities) list of deities. Note the difference in length when comparing the list of major deities to the lists of minor and lesser-known deities.  
> [6] In real life Atenism lasted only 20 years, but in this world the pharaohs are truly avatars of the gods so Akhenaten lives for a while longer.  
> [7] According to [ this ](https://www.babynames.ch/Info/Group/orAnastasius) baby name website.


End file.
